2-1 Murder Most Foul: Skinsaw Murders, Part One
Gruesome murders discovered at the Scarnetti Sawmill. The Murders at the Scarnetti Sawmill When the group returned from Thistletop, joined by their new companion the Shoanti Witch Zedkala, they found the town unusually quiet... that is until they located the crowd gathered around the Scarnetti Sawmill. Several members of the town garrison were posted to keep townsfolk back - including an indignant Titus Scarnetti - and as he saw them approach, Sheriff Hemlock moved to greet them. As had been so often the case of late, the Sheriff's mood was somber as he asked after Shalelu in an almost perfunctory fashion before relating to them what had been discovered only just that morning. Apparently Banny Harker had been meeting secretly with Katrine Vinder, the older of Ven's daughters, continuing an affair that was one of the worst kept secrets in Sandpoint. As the administrator of the sawmill, Banny took advantage of its privacy for their trysts while the workers and their foreman, Ibor Thorne, looked the other way. This morning however, Ibor Thorne had arrived to open the mill up and discovered a grisly scene - Katrines' body mutilated from being thrown into the log splitter and Banny nailed to the wall, his lower jaw removed and an arcane sigil carved into his chest - a sigil matching the Sihedron rune the PC's had discovered in the depths of the ruins at Thistletop. After a moment's consideration of Zedkala, the Sheriff agreed to grant them entrance, in the hopes they might discover something he and his men had missed. Jessalyn took advantage of this time to excuse herself from the group, content to have participated in the rescue of her friend Shalelu and wanting nothing more to do with death and grotesquery. Instead, she departed to seek out Brodert Quink, determined to accept his offer of a position as his research assistant. Amieko, too, left them to their investigations, heading back to see after the Rusty Dragon with promises that they would catch up that evening. Titus Scarnetti was incensed that these 'brigands' were allowed entry into his sawmill when he was not and the Sheriff moved to mollify him while the group began their investigations. The entire place stank of rancid, rotting flesh, though the only sign of it to be found was a bit clinging to an axe stuck in the floor not far from the log splitter. Tracks were found outside the sawmill leading from the river, suggesting that a third party had surprised the lovers and despite being injured by the axe, had managed to throw Katrine into the log splitter before ritualistically murdering Banny Harker - the stench suggested some form of intelligent undead, but the meaning behind the body's desecration escaped them. After the Sawmill, the group met up with the Sheriff who filled them in on more of what had been happening in their absence. Another group of bodies had been found several days earlier, some small-time swindlers of ill repute, and murdered in much the same fashion, though one of their local toughs had survived. He was ravening mad and appeared to be infected with some sort of sickness but was currently being held at the garrison, as was Ibor Thorne for questioning and Ven Vinder himself - the man had flown into a rage when he had learned of his daughter's death. Some had insinuated the big man might have been the one responsible, his temperament and overprotectiveness of his daughters well-known, but the Sheriff was quick to dismiss that possibility. Ven was only being held for his own good, lest in his grief he hurt someone or himself. The group split up and interviewed Thorne and the hired thug, a Varisian man named Grayst Sevilla. It turned out that Grayst was ravening mad, infected with Ghoul fever to which he would very soon succumb, but in his rantings, he managed to recognize Ezra, blaming him for what had happened, that the Skinsaw Man would be coming for him next. Very little else was to be gleaned from him. Thorne on the other hand was quite lucid, though still distraught by what he had witnessed. After careful prodding by Jasper and Zedkala, he admitted that Banny had been cooking the books a bit at the Sawmill, skimming a bit each month in an effort to put together a bride piece for Ven Vinder int he hopes of asking for Katrine's hand. He speculated that Titus could have been the one behind the murders upon discovering the crime - the Scarnetti's were renown for their ruthlessness when it came to business dealings, but Ibor was unaware of the other killings and had no idea what the carvings on the body might have meant. Terror Grips Sandpoint That night the group rejoined at The Rusty Dragon to catch Ameiko up on what they had discovered. It was a somber evening back in Sandpoint after their adventures away. The following morning yet another grisly discovery is made - long claw marks scored into the door at the front of the Inn, and a note scrawled in blood that read 'She is mine'. Ezra, intuiting that 'she' referred to Ameiko, did all that he could to remove the markings but was caught in the act; the apparent threat immediately brought on speculation that Tsuto might have somehow returned to life and even in undeath had designs on his half-sister. That speculation was interrupted by Titus whom was standing before a small gathering of townsfolk across the street from the inn. He was haranguing them about the deaths and suggesting the PC's involvement, making public their expressed interest in leasing Chopper's Isle, comparing the most recent murder to that of the Chopper and drawing a connection to their arrival in town and the assault by the goblins during the Swallowtail Festival. The crowd was growing and the words were beginning to take root in some of the listeners, but Titus' pronouncements reached their peak when he referred to Ameiko 'that foreign whore' and Ezra struck the noble. With the Varisian sawmill workers nearby, the scuffle would likely have escalated had the Sheriff not arrived on the scene and, at Titus' insistence, taken Ezra into custody. The half-elf was tossed into the garrison jail at about the same time that Ven Vinder was being released, and told by the Sheriff to cool his heels overnight while he tried to smooth things over with the Scarnetti's. Jasper, meanwhile, was looking in on the still comatose Nualia and visiting with Keller Rinn when he discovered the trouble his companion had gotten into. Father Zantus was advised about the threat that Grayst's transformation posed and a decision its agreed that he and the Sheriff will see to the situation. Zedkala spent the morning composing a letter to Sheila Heidmarch informing her that she was safe, and been rescued in fact by the 'Heroes of Sandpoint' and would be remaining in their company for a while longer. She included in her message (sent via Mikken) mention of what she had discovered in the ruins she had set out to explore as well as the troubling murder she had been witness to. The following morning Titus and his wife are both found dead in their manor. The discovery was made by the servants whom found them butchered in their bed much the way Banny Harker had been, ritualistically killed and engraved with the Sihedron symbol. Public suspicion immediately shifted to Ezra, but he had been in his cell all night long, and with that alibi, the Sheriff invited the PC's once more to aid in the investigation - in large part because another message had been left for Ezra, painted on the walls, a message that read 'Ezra - she will never be yours. She is mine forever.' It was discovered that the perpetrator had once again come up out of the river, this time scaling the manor walls and entering the Scarnettti's bedroom through the window, and the same rancid stench clung to this room as it had at the sawmill. The Sheriff also discovered evidence in the wreckage strewn about that Titus Scarnetti had had a hand in the burnings of the other sawmills along the river, and that the perpetrators - the Scarzni who now worked for him - had been extorting him on pain of revealing his involvement. It was found shortly after that the Scarzni had vacated town. Sheriff Hemlock was suspicious, but did not think that they had anything to do withe the actual murders; why the ritual and why sever the hand that was feeding them? Ezra was freed and the group decided to set an ambush for the killer, presumed to be Tsuto - Ameiko agreed to serve as bait, presenting herself on the bridge that night, hoping to draw her half-brother to her while the PC's waited in ambush. Instead, emerging half-dead with exhaustion and wild-eyed with fright came a local farmer, Maester Grump. Once he was calmed and his belly warmed by some brandy at the Dragon, he revealed to the PC's and to Sheriff Hemlock that there was trouble out on the farms, that scarecrows were coming to life and slaughtering entire families, that he was the lone survivor or a group of common folk whom had set out to destroy the creatures where they had apparently made their nest - the Hambley Farm. Category:Chronicle